Exploring the Intersection of Efficiency and Librarianship

Get It Out of Your Head Before it Explodes!

You may have already discovered that your head is a crappy office space. David Allen often says that if you have something saved only in your head, you are going to give it far more attention then it deserves. Our mind can only effectively hold onto one item at a time in its conscious memory. Once something new comes to its attention, the odds are your mind will drop the previous item. This creates huge inefficiencies and potential ticking time bombs if the item that was lost has the potential to blow up later.

The solution is very simple. Whenever something comes to your attention that is worth saving, write it down immediately in whatever format works best for you at the time. This can be on paper, or electronically in your phone, or even a verbal message on your home answering machine. The key is that the place where you store the item has to be somewhere that you know you will look at later. Otherwise your mind will take it back if it doesn’t trust the system.

So defuse those ticking time bombs by getting things out of your head and into your trusted system. You mind will thank you for it.